Do you prepare sermons regularly or plan to? Then, like most communicators, you’ve asked yourself, “What is the difference between an OK sermon and a good sermon?” Maybe you’ve wondered what makes a message top or flop, hit the target or crash and burn, prevail or fail. Quite frankly, if you start a sermon poorly, you will fail.
God’s Word has the power to change someone and totally redirect that person’s life trajectory. Yet, some messages fall short, and you forget what it entailed right after lunch. Others are memorable.
I am confident you want to preach life, change, and freedom. You want your congregation to experience the Holy Spirit’s breath and inspiration. I also know not all your sermons will be home runs, touchdown passes, and money makers (ok, you get the picture). That is normal. Some of those messages will be OK, some poor, some just plain terrible. Others will be memorable and motivating. We’ve all been there. Here are a few things to remember before discovering how to ruin a good sermon.
- God’s word will have the effect it’s supposed to have on one’s life. The Creator is not THAT dependent on your abilities.
- The Holy Spirit can multiply the effect of a message, like taking 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish to feed a multitude.
- It is the power of God that changes lives, not our persuasive rhetoric, as Paul reminds us so well “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (2 Corinthians 2:4 NIV)
- The importance of relying on that Spirit’s power should never be “a comfy pillow of laziness,” as my seminary homiletics teacher once said. You may think, “God can do better than my preparation,” which is true. Any worthwhile preacher and communicator must acknowledge the need to practice and sharpen their skills.
So how do you start a sermon that will ultimately fail? Start by making these 7 common mistakes.
1. Start by not preparing
Every pastor knows this reality: a pastor’s time is a very elastic notion. It can and should be stretched to extreme expectations. You must be available to do house and hospital visits, calm people’s anxieties in pastoral counseling sessions, clean up the building, and attend the deacon’s daughter’s recital. And oh yes, invest time for your message.
No one will thank you for taking the needed time to prepare your sermon and some will complain about your lack of availability for their priorities. I know. Been there. Done that. But own this: Your messages will ultimately fail if you don’t prepare.
2. Start by telling your church why they shouldn’t listen to your sermon
“This is a hard message to preach (hear, understand).”
“It is a complicated subject.”
“I had such a busy week.”
“God will have to kick this message alive because I haven’t had time to prepare it.”
Yes, I’ve heard those sentences before in introductions. I actually may have said them as well. You too? By starting with such lame one-liners, you’re giving people reasons not to listen to you! Your congregants will tune you out! The intro is where you begin captivating your audience. You will eventually fail if no one listens. You have 30-60 seconds to draw them in.
3. Start by ignoring your listeners
A good sermon is intended for its listeners, for those who will hear it. Ignore your crowd, and the final analysis of your message will land at a 3 out 10 scale.
Does your message matter to them? If so, make sure they get something from it. “The Bible was not given for our information, but our transformation,” like Dwight L. Moody so rightly declared. This also ties in closely with point #6.
4. Start by making the sermon about you, not about Jesus
Start your sermon with a good thought from a self-help guru, make it all about what your audience wants to hear, give a pep talk on how to better yourself, and your message will ultimately fail. Why, you ask? I’m glad you want to know.
Your message should help people. It should “encourage and give strength” as Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NCV). It should build and motivate people. You can talk about your experience, your mishaps, your successes, and your failures. But never, in no case whatsoever, should it be about you. Too many communicators, in their desire to have a following and be appreciated, preach a Gospel “to say what their (audience, emphasis mine) itching ears want to hear.” (2 Timothy 4:4 NIV). Ultimately, your sermon(s) will crash if such is the case.
“Always remember that Jesus Christ, a descendant of King David, was raised from the dead. This is the Good News I preach.” (2 Timothy 2:8 NLT). This is the Gospel YOU should preach. This is the sermon you must preach.
5. Start by having too little content…or too much of it!
You will say too little if you don’t prepare enough. One good line doesn’t make a whole message. When you have too little content, you tend to repeat yourself, go in every direction, and get lost in your thoughts!
On the opposite side of the continuum, you may have too much content. It’s not time to show off all your knowledge. My mentor John Maxwell says that “communicators do the hard work to make it simple.”
If you want your sermon to fail, have too much or too little content, or have no clue where you want to land.
6. Start by not knowing the destination of your sermon
Every time Jesus spoke to crowds, there was a purpose to his message. It was a call to action. He wanted people to do something. “Go and sin no more”, “take up your mat and walk,” and “love your neighbor”.
Your sermon will fail if there is no call to action or a next step. You need to be convinced of WHY you preach that message. Your congregants should know what to do with what they heard! As you know, knowledge and information don’t change anything; action does. Jesus said himself: “So now put into practice what I have done for you, and you will experience a life of happiness enriched with untold blessings!” (John 13:17 TPT)
7. Start by choosing your stories, not the text
A message that has little or no biblical content is called a talk, no matter how good it is. Your sermon will collapse if you choose fun/motivational/emotional (put in your adjective here) stories before choosing your Bible passage.
Yes, Jesus used stories all the time. He was a very gifted storyteller. Scripture and Kingdom principles were his main ingredients. Same for you, Scripture and Kingdom principles are the essence of a sermon. It is what you base your homily on; not stories.
Here’s a bonus entry for you.
8. Start by forgetting you need to grow
Your sermon, or sermons, plural, will ultimately fail if you do not seek to get better at your communication skills. You have to refine your craft and mastery. “No reason exists why the preaching of the gospel should be a miserable operation either to the speaker or to the hearer.” and “Correct yourself diligently and frequently,” as Spurgeon once wrote.
To read this full article means you want success, not failure in your sermon. While not every sermon will be a home run, it is also essential that it doesn’t completely flop. We’ve talked about 7 ways to start the sermon that will ultimately fail (plus a bonus point). Now, as you prepare your next sermon, consider each of these thoughts, go humbly before God and pray the Holy Spirit inspires you in your preparation.
